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Tag Archive | Dinodictionary

Yup still got these old Dino posts… enjoy the flashback to resources once used!

3 guesses where this dinosaur was found… and the first two don’t count! Yup, found in the 90’s in Utah, USA, this bipedal carnivore is thought to be one of the largest raptors. One of the dromaeosaurs, this lightweight dinosaur was potentially a warm blooded dinosaur and more like a mammal than most. I had a special sheet for us to fill in information about this carnivore from Activity Village HERE. With razor sharp teeth and massive claws this predator was quite the fearsome creature found in the Cretaceous period.

In my research about Texas I came across a great book that had a story about the life of dinosaurs in Texas. So of course we had to research some of the listed ones. We did this a little differently than Emanuel and I usually do it when we solo learn. Instead I read them the information and one of the twins wrote the main points. The other and Emanuel then coloured our picture. These are all going to go into our Texas binder when we finish our unit in the end of May. Our original source of our list was from the book Dinosaur Hunt by Karen Carr. You can get to our resource page HERE.

Our first dinosaur was the slower moving carnivore from the Cretaceous period the Acrocanthosaurus also known as Acro. This therapod was found in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona. Potentially one of the smarter predators it went after slower moving dinosaurs mainly. Its front legs/arms were longer than a T-Rex’s and much more useful. Definitely a dinosaur to watch out for. For our links we used some old favourites and some new ones as well…

Dinosaur #2 was the Pleurocelus… a 4 legged herbivore also from the Cretaceous period. Found in Texas, Maryland and Utah it had longer front legs than back and so mimics the appearance of a giraffe. In fact, it is believed it may have walked on its front toes! It was a fitting meal for our Acrocanthosaurus. Of course we have links to share.

Wikipedia has a discussion about the actual name determination and defining that we did NOT cover but you can read more about that under the article titled Astrodon HERE

Our third dinosaur was one that Emanuel and I had already covered – the Hypsilophodon. So we did a brief overview and jumped list on our backlogged dino posts to put up the one we covered you can read about that HERE. This plant eater was included in our dinosaurs of Texas book but I do admit to finding it placed mostly in Europe.

Our fourth and final dinosaur was the Coloborhynchus. This dinosaur was a flyer and amazingly enough has given us a NEW term for what it eats – a PISCIVORE… fish eater! Emanuel is PUMPED! A new term to hunt under. There is some rather contradictory information about it as apparently there is some dispute as to whether it is its own dinosaur or falls under another name. We did enjoy our rather limited information and of course seeing it in our dinosaur book. Our links…

The boy has a talent… he always finds the most obscure dinosaurs! Although this time it was a surprise… he found THIS dinosaur in the dinosaur colouring book Gammie sent them.

Ready to go to Gammie

Anyway links and video and the rest for our newest herbivore… The Xiaosaurus (pronounced show -saw – rus) is found in China. Its name means small lizard and it definitely was! Weighing under 100lbs and eating only plants it is thought to run in large family groups. They traveled in forests to keep hidden from predators. This little wonder was alive during the Jurassic period. And now, for the links!!!

Let’s start with our picture that Emanuel took the time to colour… with markers as it printed dark… you can find that HERE. Of course EnchantedLearning had a little blurb on this Chinese dino… you can find that HERE. Wiki’s page is rather technical so not much there for Emanuel but an older child… check that out HERE. About.com has a nice point form set up for their blurb HERE. I love the little visual comparison of a human and the dino that the dino dictionary had HERE. Emanuel really liked the dinopedia’s picture HERE. I love the map on the Ageof Dinosaurs site HERE.

Very scenic

I did not find a specific video for this dinosaur BUT I did find a neat video of the Chinese Dinosaur museum. So please, check it out! And check back, the next dinosaur is a mom pick – Triceratops!